Reading passages of your own writing aloud is a useful exercise for many reasons. Use short sentences containing a single main point for information you want to highlight. You break language rules on purpose, rather than by accident. As Michael Harvey explains,[1] the desire to sound more academic might prompt a student to write To satisfy her hunger for nutrition, she ate the bread rather than simply She was hungry, so she ate the bread. It is true that a lot of academic writing is laden with unnecessary jargon, but the culture is shifting among scholars to favor plainer language and insist on clarity. Communicating effectively with your lecturers and tutors. For your writing to be lucid, you as the writer need to know exactly what youre trying to say. Clarity is, as it were, the grail, the ne plus ultra, of academic writing, the purpose of which is to communicate thoughts and information to readers accurately and perspicuously in a document that can stand on its ownan autonomous, self-explanatory account of your thought process and conclusions. In remembrance of University Writing Program Continuing Lecturer Robert Similarly, think about punctuations role in a sentence and what purposes rules like subject-verb agreement and verb conjugations serve. It is important to note that this process presupposes that we actually read the assigned readings and take notes during class lectures and discussions. Unsurprisingly, the hardest writing assignments I have had in college were the ones for which I was least prepared. Variously attributed to Albert Einstein, E.F. Schumacher, and Woody Guthrie. Product pricing will be adjusted to match the corresponding currency. When I ask clients to rewrite a sentence using the most straight-forward and simplest language possible, it sometimes takes them a few minutes to identify exactly what they were trying to say. The idea of how much power the King had struck Parliament. Scholarly Voice: Precision, Clarity, and Academic Expression Write drunk, edit sober is a quote often misattributed to Ernest Hemingway. Once upon a time, as a walk through the woods was taking place on the part of Little Red Riding Hood, the Wolfs jump out from behind a tree caused her fright. An elegant and apt turn of phrase is satisfying both to write and to read. Because clarity is an all-encompassing ideathe fundamental question of clarity is, Are you getting your meaning across?it can be difficult to define, or at least to pare down to a set of clearly bounded parameters. Clarity and Coherence in Academic Writing: Using Language as a Resource (1st ed.). Doing so is like driving while looking only at the few feet of the road right in front of the bumper. Clarity in Writing: 7 Musts for Lucid Prose | Now Novel The more the writer chops up and mixes unlike things, the harder it becomes to follow their logic. An image like the broken glass glinting in moonlight in Chekhovs example helps clarity because it: Write two brief, two-line descriptions, each describing a specific sight that tells the reader the moon was shining. Not just rules and advice, but concrete examples of revisions and rewrites. Description This book presents a lively, rich, and concise introduction to the key concepts and tools for developing clarity and coherence in academic writing. However, the passage is still clear to the reader because it keeps the character consistent and explains what that character does (creates nostalgia) to who (people at large). This is the case for every type of writing. If you read over a paragraph and it seems unclear, read it out aloud. Well-known authors and linguists David Nunan and Julie Choi argue that becoming an accomplished writer is a career-long endeavor. When youve put in the time and effort to take in the bigger picture of your analysis, most of the micro-scale moves happen automatically. Writers should keep their expression "Real Simple," eliminating unnecessary and repetitious words, redundant ideas, and awkward phrasing. A good topic sentence summarises the main message of the paragraph and helps the writer to stick to that topic. Many writing guides describe editing strategies that produce a vivid, satisfying concision. At the sentence level, though, its fair to say that clarity requires constant vigilance against (and revision of) imprecision and ambiguity in syntax and diction. Ambiguity is situational, arising from the interaction between the readers background knowledge and the complex lattice of meaning that your sentences (and title, and headings, and structure) have created prior to the moment of ambiguity. A talented and rare specimen, indeed! Now, lets compare sentences to illustrate these strategies. Nominalizations are noun forms of verbswords that signal the existence of an action as opposed to the performance of an action (the job of verbs). When your language is as specific as your argument requires, you have achieved precision. While educational experiences are an obvious benefit of tribal colleges, the needs tribal communities have for economic development, cultural vitality, and social ties are also addressed by educational institutions. Did I use 10 words to say what I could using 3. What Is Academic Writing? Your Complete Guide | Grammarly Blog Use the active voice. I love writing. Academics' Views on the Characteristics of Academic Writing Academic writing tends to be more formal, requiring succinct prose rather than bullet points, and it is more about the argument than simply conveying, or describing, information. Vague writing has a few hallmarks, including: Youve likely encountered vague writing in a variety of settings. Each of the sample paragraphs on this page contain examples of placing new or important information at the end of sentences. This page describes how you can structure sentences and paragraphs to achieve clarity and 'flow' in your writing. Draw similes and metaphors from the same neighbourhood of images and ideas, for claritys sake. This page describes how you can structure sentences and paragraphs to achieve clarity and 'flow' in your writing. How to Overcome Academic Writers Block: Writing a Zero Draft, View margaretpuskarpasewiczs profile on LinkedIn. Yet you could also summarize a characters wordy rambling in another characters words (for concisions sake). When your language is clear, youre perceived as more of an authority on your subject. Nevertheless, there are a handful of usual suspects that reliably produce sentence-level ambiguity: Passive voice and misplaced modifiers have dedicated pages, linked above and in the sidebar; the remaining issues are discussed in the sections that follow. Among the most useful are those at the. Clarity and precision are also more persuasive. Further, the allergic sensitization-processes also involves a role for mast cells. Last semester, my essay on symbolism in Romantic poetry won a department award. Clarity - Graduate Writing Center - Naval Postgraduate School Make sure you are using effective topic sentences to identify your main points and to give the reader a sense of where you're going next. But far and away, the largest weight-inducing food, out-stripping all others, was the potato chip. Because nominalizations are nouns and not verbs, they can be present in a sentence without the agent that is performing the action, thereby obscuring who is doing what. Resistancehas been growing to the perceived vigilante actions of the Avengers.*. These are just two types of ambiguity that creep into even strong writing easily. To introduce you to this world of academic writing, in this chapter I suggest that you should focus on five hierarchical characteristics of good writing, or the "5 Cs" of good academic writing, which include Clarity, Cogency, Conventionality, Completeness, and Concision. Let snakes be; let them whistle and win the Tour de France. Notice how the topic changes from the first to the second sentence in the following example: One technique for writing clearly [1] is to place less important information at the start of a sentence and more important information at the end of a sentence. Thank you for reading our blog. When you write, clarity should be one of your top priorities. Supporting or background information should appear in the beginning or in the middle of a sentence. That example goes out of its way to be silly, but consider this example from a website offering free college papers:[4]. The alternatives which are open to alter must have some measure of stability in two respects: first, as realistic possibilities for alter, and second, in their meaning to ego. The engine overheated during the first trial. Please have that project done ASAP for the next meeting. Focusing first or only on sentence-level issues is a troublesome approach. Fix these and other errors by hiring a good editor. Academic writing style refers to the rules and conventions for producing written work in academic contexts. a quote often misattributed to Ernest Hemingway, First drafts are sloppy, spotty, patchy, riddled-with-holes, Clarity in writing: Definition and top tips, Coherent, intelligible meaning (readers can understand the writing and what the author is trying to say, to a reasonable degree), Sharpness of image or idea (if you think of a diamond, clarity allows light to refract better, makes a stone more dazzling and its shape clearer the same goes for writing), Impenetrable/almost impossible to understand, A fog of words designed to obscure weak arguments or threadbare meaning beneath. Tip #1: while clarity is comprised of numerous componentssentence structure, organization, and proper grammar, just to name a fewtheres a very easy and reliable way to double-check for clarity and that is simply to read your work out loud. If we were describing a girl whistling while she cycles through a forest, this would be an incorrect use or dangling modifier: Whistling and cycling through the forest, the snake made the girl scream. For example, act action, write writings, or think thought. Organising information in a sentence In a direct style, the information in sentences tends to be organised from: The sound was serpentine, a lisp like wind blown across the mouth of the smallest glass bottle. The phrase Georges twin brother is not necessary for the meaning of the sentence. Working loose and light has its own avantages.Give yourself freedom to make mistakes. When scientific interest centers on the large-scale effects, the idea is to use a few extra small-scale parameters so that the large-scale parameters are estimated more efficiently.. Magna Carta.. If we turn "concern" into a verb and make the who our subject, we get the clearest version yet: Automobile manufacturers fearedthat the bill would allow overseas conglomerates to undersell them in regional markets. If you start to lose your reader, expect a bad grade. The lilly pilly [1], also known as the Australian cherry tree [2], is an evergreen distinguished by its bright berries, which range in colour from magenta to deep purple. For example: Fred Weasley, Georges twin brother, always manages his mischief. In many ways, writing well and reading incisively are two facets of the same cognitive skill set. Using subjects and verbs which do not relate to our agents and their actions can produce unclear and wordy academic writing. It rears its nebulous head(s) any time a reader is unable to determine with reasonable certainty the meaning of your text. According to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA, 2020), academic writing should be concise and clear, and using words frugally creates a more readable paper. Product and Process Approaches to Writing 4. PDF Academic Writing Style: Clarity - The University of Western Australia Academic writing is a writing style used by and for people in academic settings. For example, the way in which can often be replaced by how and despite the fact that can usually be replaced by although. Strong, precise verbs can often replace bloated phrases. Subordinating it to the larger discussionoffering context via a transitionwill help readers understand the purpose of this emerging point: To reduce contract processing times even further, training should be a monthly requirement so that all staff have an up-to-date knowledge of new regulations. In this revision process, even those words or phrases that we are especially proud of may face elimination. But the more familiar you are with these rhetorical structures, the more often you can recognize and use them. And while I dont want you to think of sentence-level wordsmithing as some kind of abstract, enchanted virtue, I do want you to understand that clarity and concision are more than aesthetics. A nominalization is the noun form of a verb or adjective. Adjectives and adverbs:A carefully chosen adjective or adverb can enhance your work, but adding too many extraneous and unnecessary ones can lead to wordy writing that isnt really very concise (such as this clause). They provide this fanciful example:[3], Grammatically, the subject of the first part is a walk through the woods, and the verb is taking place. If it's the manufacturersa plausible candidatewe might rewrite the sentence this way: Automobile manufacturers concern over the bill was that it would allow overseas conglomerates to undersell them in regional markets. Towards Active Voice 6. Which brings us to tip #2: if you dont know what your main point is (whether its a sentence, a paragraph, or a whole document) then the reader will be that much more clueless. For more information and examples about how to reduce passive voice, see the UWC resource titled Passive Voice: What It is & How to Reduce Usage. David Nunan is Professor Emeritus of Applied Linguistics at the University of Hong Kong; and President Emeritus, Distinguished Research Professor, and Director of the David Nunan Institute, Anaheim University. We lose track of where we are. This resource makes complex concepts accessible to the emergent writer and illustrates how these concepts can be applied to their own writing. However, certain varieties are both tasty and of high nutritional value [4]. Encyclopdia Britannica, s.v. content editing, substantive editing) . Adding flow, cohesion, and coherence to your writing adds . But knowing how wordiness interferes with clarity can help you distill essential meanings from challenging texts. 1. Clarity in writing is a "Clean Sweep" intervention for the chaos created by word clutter. Writing clearly involves thinking clearly, and clear rigorous thinking is why your professors assign you writing in the first place. Academic writing aims to be clear and precise, with a direct style that moves logically from one idea to the next. Vague writing is difficult to understand, making it ineffective in many cases. Materials: -Piece of student's writing, first draft-Blank sheets of paper -Pencils and pens-Examples of unclear writings-Overhead projector As a student, you may find it difficult and can face many challenges while completing your work. Academic work includes writing assignments, term papers, and dissertations. That is, actions, gestures, or symbols must have a shared and persistent meaning for ego and alter even though ego and alter are in different situations and are constantly changing. For example, an introductory phrase that tells us the way something or someone moves: Whistling and cycling through the forest, . Here's an example: The US government subsidizes . It includes advice on checking your content, organisation and structure, expression and style. This sentence now assigns the concern to an identifiable entity, giving us a more concrete idea of what's going on. Experienced drivers instead take in the larger scene and more effectively identify and avoid potential hazards with ongoing course corrections. This is when the noun which a participle phrase applies to is left out of the sentence. Compare The Avengers fought a small, unplanned battle with Hydra with The Avengers skirmished with Hydra.. Nominalization in Academic Writing - Enago Academy Developing clarity and focus in academic writing, new terms that a reader may not recognise, information with emotional weight or high significance for your argument, ideas that will be further developed in the next few sentences. A student that does all the right things for clarity (see the above guidelines) might occasionally slip up and use a split infinitive or produce a sentence starting with "But" (see above for an example). It seems the sentence itself is under trial. Writing for assessment requires you to think carefully about your assignment and criteria, your argument and content, use of your subject specific conventions (e.g . Writing in College by Amy Guptill is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. Is this statement a continuation of the previous idea? Finding Your Voice as an Academic Writer (and Writing Clearly) What Does Clarity in Writing Even Mean? While this sentence is grammatically correct, we have no idea whose concern its telling us about; we just know the concern exists. Developing clarity and focus in academic writing. Clarity in writing takes practice, but here are a few rules of thumb to keep in mind: Its GO time for generative AI writing assistance, Grammarly helps you communicate confidently. - Christine, on Clarity in writing: 7 musts for lucid prose, Revision in writing: How to improve between drafts, Artificial intelligence for writing: 10 helpful AI uses, Writing productivity hacks: How to write more and finish, What should I write about? While you cant often summon elegance out of nowhere, you can learn a few structures that are often pleasing to the readers ear because they harmonize what youre saying with how youre saying it. The original (goddess as a child, queen at eighteen, celebrity soon thereafter) effectively uses parallelism to vividly convey the dramatic shifts in Cleopatras roles and her prominence in the ancient world. When you proofread your work, look for filler words like very, really, just, and totally. Each and every student enrolled in our educational institutions deserves and is entitled to competent instruction in all of the key academic areas of study. Writing well is like that. He pedalled hard as he whistled. These environments [5] are valuable not only for their aesthetic qualities, but also for their capacity to reduce flooding and provide a habitat for local species [6]. Real estate is a small industry; its not wise to make enemies. Here, the phrase if found guilty lacks the noun it refers to. Breadcrumbs Section. 1. This common rhetorical trick is to put the part you want to emphasize at the very end of the sentence.
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clarity in academic writing
